eBay Workshop: The New My Messages, Thursday, July 14, 3:00-4:00 PM EDT

[carly@ebay.com]

Topic: eBay Workshop: The New My Messages

Host: eBay Staff
Date: Thursday 14/07
Time: 03:00 - 04:00 EDT
Location: Canada Town Square

Description: Please join eBay Staff to learn how My Messages will provide you with: important account alerts, member-to-member communications, correspondence with Customer Support and more. During this online workshop, eBay staff will provide tips on how to use the new My Messages, as well as answer your questions.

Hope to see you there!!!!

Carly
eBay Community Development

[carly@ebay.com]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for joining us today for the New My Messages Workshop. eBay Pinks Bradleyk and Sundin will be answering questions today.

Let's get started!

Carly

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

Hi. I’m Bradley, one of the Product Managers for My Messages. Welcome to today’s workshop. My team and I are here to discuss how buyers and sellers can best use My Messages.

To give you some background, the first phase of My Messages launched December 2004. At that time, My Messages was a read-only Inbox with messages from eBay about buying and selling.

The second phase of My Messages launched in June 2005. My Messages is now also the place for you to receive secure, relevant messages directly from eBay and other eBay members. All messages originate from eBay systems and are guaranteed to be authentic. With this phase, one of the greatest benefits is spoof/phishing protection. If you get an email that looks like it’s from eBay about a problem with your account or requests personal information and it’s not in My Messages, it’s a fake email. From a safety perspective, the bottom line is this -- if the email affects your eBay account, it’s in My Messages.

In addition to the spoof protection benefit, My Messages is now available for two-way communication with eBay and other eBay members. You can receive important account-related messages (like seller monthly invoices, alerts, and Trust & Safety messages), Customer Support responses and member-to-member communications in your My Messages Inbox. This will ensure you never miss an important message because of spam blockers or a full email box.

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

If you learn three things from this workshop, I’d like it to be:
1. Only eBay and registered eBay members can send messages to My Messages.
My Messages is in addition to your email communications, not a replacement.
2. Messages have expiration dates and will be automatically deleted (for example, member-to-member messages will be removed after 30 days). Since all messages are also delivered to your registered email address, you are able to keep copies for as long as you’d like.
3. My Messages provides spoof protection. If you receive an email that looks like it’s from eBay about a problem with your account or requests personal information and it’s not in My Messages, it’s a fake email.

We’ll start out this session with our top My Messages Frequently Asked Questions, and then open up the floor for questions.

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

If my registered email address receives exact copies of the messages in My Messages, why did you create My Messages? What are the benefits to using My Messages?

Phase two of My Messages was created based on what both buyers and sellers have asked for: spoof protection, member-to-member communication, Customer Support correspondence, etc. Some benefits include…
Reliable delivery – We've all had emails simply not show up in our email inbox for some reason from time to time (typically due to ISP Spam blockers). When you use one of eBay's on-site contact forms (such as Ask Seller a Question), we will deliver copies of your email to both the recipient's My Messages Inbox and to their registered email address. A copy will also be saved to your Sent folder within your My Messages in case you need to reference it later.
New Alerts at Sign In – eBay will tell you when you have new account alerts that require your action as soon as you sign in (such as unpaid item alerts). This will help ensure that you never miss important account-related information from Customer Support or Trust and Safety. Additionally, these alerts cannot be “spoofed” by the bad guys.
Easy Contact with Customer Support – Quick access to Customer Support will be provided within My Messages, and you'll receive all their responses both in My Messages and at your registered email address.
As you know, with any solution it is impossible to satisfy over a million people. One of the key things we heard from sellers is no matter what solution we created -- “don’t take away email.” We heard that and that’s why you will continue to get copies of your messages in both My Messages and email.

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

How can I tell the difference between messages from eBay and messages from eBay members? Is there an easy way to filter messages?

You may have already noticed the color-coding. This color-coding will allow you to immediately recognize if something is from eBay. eBay alerts have a yellow background color. eBay sent messages have a blue background color. If the message is from another member – there is no background color.

Another easy way to read your My Messages Inbox is to filter your messages. In the "from" pull-down menu, you have a list: All, eBay, eBay Member and then a detailed list of all of the specific senders. If you pull down to eBay, this will filter all of the member communications out of your view. Similarly, pull down to “eBay Member” and filter out all of the eBay-sent messages. (Using this filter you can select all and delete – if you don’t want to manage you M2M emails here.)

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

I noticed that users are allowed to hide their email addresses? When I tried to reply to a member’s email (from my email client), I was told to “UseTheYellowButton@ebay.ca” – what is that?

Yes, members do have the ability to hide their email addresses from the recipient on all of the Member Contact forms. However, this feature is not new to My Messages. Users have had the ability to hide their address on the Ask Seller a Question form for a very long time. Member-to-member emails always come from member@ebay.com (prior to that, they used to come from aw-confirm@ebay.com). The reply to address (if you use email to respond) is either the member’s email address OR UseTheYellowButton@ebay.com (if they have hidden their address). The only thing My Messages changed was replying to UseTheYellowButton@ebay.ca (instead of replying to member@ebay.ca). We used the yellow button address to make it more visible that it isn't going to the member.

That said, we have found that the button doesn't appear in text emails so the reply address does seem a bit funny in that case. The number of users receiving text emails is quite low. We are looking at changing the reply to address for text emails (to point to the link, instead of the button.)

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

What are account alerts? And why can’t I delete them?

On occasion, you may receive an alert related to your account such as:

Password change notice

Credit Card Expiration/Collections notice

Unpaid Item/Item Not Received notice

These alerts are infrequent but important and require your immediate attention. When an account-related alert is sent to your My Messages Inbox, you may be notified when you sign in. A reminder will also appear near the top of most eBay pages.
Alerts will always be located at the top of your My Messages Inbox in priority order.
Alerts can be deleted but the timing of resolution and subsequent deletion (by you) varies, depending on the alert.

Time Delay Alerts (ex: password change alerts and email change alerts) – These alerts are kept for a period of time before a user can delete them. For the two alerts mentioned, these alerts will remain for 30 days. The intent of this decision is that account takeovers often start with either a password change or email change. In this example, a buyer could have been locked out of his account, but able to get back in by using their secret answer. They would then see that the password was changed. This should tip them off that a fraudster has taken over their account.

Read Once Alerts (ex: collections alerts and general warning alerts) – Alerts that fall into this category need members to be aware of the warning. Therefore, these alerts must be read once before they can be deleted.

Action Alerts (ex: unpaid item alerts and suspension alerts) – These alerts require an explicit action before they can be deleted. In these examples you can read the alert but until they’ve been acted upon they stay put as unresolved.

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

As a buyer, I’ve received numerous spoof (fake) emails. How will My Messages protect me?

Spoof emails can be a major problem (and annoyance) for Internet users. These emails look like they come from legitimate companies (your bank, eBay, and other trusted-brands) and often have a sense of urgency for you to reply with your personal information such as a credit card number, social security number or account password. These emails can be very convincing and it can be hard to tell a real email from a spoof (fake) email.

With the second phase of My Messages, we’ve taken the guesswork out of whether an email is real or fake. You can now verify if the eBay email is legitimate. The bottom line – if an email affects your eBay account, it's in My Messages. So next time you get an email that looks like it’s from eBay about a problem with your account or requests personal information– visit My Messages. If the same message is not in My Messages, it’s a fake email.

Please visit our spoof tutorial for more information on how you can detect spoof emails and keep your account safe.

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

How can I opt-out of My Messages?

My Messages does not have an opt-out feature. If you really don’t want to use it – you can simply ignore it. The messages/alerts posted here are typically copies of emails. There are messages, however, that are not copies – specific to this communication channel.

There are a couple of things I can recommend for users that really don’t want to see My Messages:
1. you can customize the My Messages reminders on the My Summary page. Click the X in the upper right hand side of the module to remove it form the summary view.
2. When you get alerts (that show in the global header – you must read the alert at least once to clear the reminder (if the alert doesn’t require more attention).

There are no plans to provide a mechanism to hide the reminder from the At a Glance modules NOR are there any plans to remove it from the My eBay left navigation.

We have built this tool to get important messaging to you. You can minimize the impact, but the alerts reminders will be present until you handle the corresponding situation.

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

We’ll now open the floor up for questions.

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

Okay... not much going on... I'll throw another one out there:

Will My Messages protect me from fake PayPal emails?

At this time, the messages about your account will be specific to eBay accounts. PayPal messaging will not be included -- but not due to a lack of desire. There is a fair amount of integration that needs to occur.

If you would like to learn more about how you can protect your PayPal account (or other accounts) from spoof emails, please visit our spoof tutorial.

[pukmis]

Hi ya Bradley ...
Guess everyone has heat stroke today! I just wanted to stop in
and say now that I am getting used to using the "My Messages"
I am enjoying the convenience of it!!!
I still find myself going to my junk mail first for messages
but in time I will be using the other!
If and when you can get Paypal into the system that would be
great...
Thanks for your time today!!!

The folks who know the truth , aren't talking.
The ones who don't have a clue,
...you can't shut them up. ~Tom Waites~

[able-wizard1957]

Hello and thanks for all this info.

Is it possible to opt out of receiving My Messages in my own email? I'm finding it a bit of a pain to get them in both places - especially since we're a two-person selling team ("Hey Honey did you answer this one? This one? This one????") - he tends to respond from the message in our own email and I tend to respond from within My Messages so I'd like to cut it down to one place to respond from for our own ease of use.

Steph

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

Hi pukmis -

Heat stroke huh? Good excuse. 🙂

But as for your kudos... Thank you! Glad you are enjoying it!

Best Regards,
Bradley

[eserafini]

Hi bardley,

In My Messages It would be nice to have a clickable feedback number right beside the ID in the email so that we can check where user is registered, date of registration and feedback. It would save a few steps for sellers.

While you are at it. why not inlude the link to block user from bidding if info found is negative.

Elaine TimelessClassicElegance

[eserafini]

... sorry bardley = Bradley

Not suffering from heat stroke but cold :) TimelessClassicElegance

[bradleyk@ebay.com]

Hi able-wizard -

There is not a way of opting out of Member communications. We are intentially delivering to both email and My Message (to ensure the folks who want it in one location or the other have that choice). We have found that member communications are blocked quite often by major ISPs and filed to junk folders. So delivery to My Messages made a lot of sense.

Now, that said, I can give you a couple tips:

Uf you want to only use email for responding to Member communications, you can filter OUT the member communications from My Messages (and delete them). See post 5 - use the eBay members selection, do a mass-select, and delete.

Similarly, if you only want to use My Messages, you and your team mate need only pay attention to the status icon in the right side (default inbox view) for whether the message has been responded to.

Bradley

[pukmis]

heehee...I liked the Bardley , cute Elaine!!

The folks who know the truth , aren't talking.
The ones who don't have a clue,
...you can't shut them up. ~Tom Waites~

[able-wizard1957]

Thanks Bradley - its going to become a "training issue" with hubby, I can see LOL